bethelouise

Sunday, 27 January 2019

Social media has become such an important factor in how professionals live their every day lives, mastering it can mean improving not only your connections with other PR professionals and agencies, but also your ability to get a job in the field. It's more than just promoting yourself to others; it can also be the perfect way to build your portfolio by expressing yourself and what you are interested in, if done properly.

There are so many social media sites out there now, how are you meant to know which is the best for you? Here are my top choices for building a social media 'portfolio' and how to use them properly to network and promote your personal brand.

Twitter: Twitter is one of the most powerful tools when it comes to developing yourself as a PR professional and connecting with the PR community because you can tailor your Twitter feed to suit you by following, retweeting and liking posts that are to your interest. Twitter is great for engaging in PR conversation whether it be through the #PRStudent hashtag while at uni or #PRTips, #PRAdvice conversations as well as engaging with agencies and professionals you're interested in. Your Twitter profile could also be used in your portfolio as it's showing your interest in a certain community or topic and shows clearly how up to date you are on what's going on in that field.LinkedIn: LinkedIn is the obvious one when it comes to using social media professionally. The perfect platform for finding out industry news and easily connecting with industry professionals. You can use this platform to connect with new professionals and keep in touch with old ones. Your profile on LinkedIn is like your online CV/portfolio - add all your best bits to it, both work experience and links to your existing work. It's the perfect platform to show how professionally connected you are to the PR community.

Instagram: Instagram is perfect for those who want to get involved in a career that has a visual aspect, such as the fashion industry or working across social media. Instagram is a great way to show your personality through style and passion for any specific industry. It's the perfect outlet to show yourself doing what you love and your interests!

Keep these 3 tips in mind when trying to put your best foot forward:

1. Read over your social posts before you send them - if you're going for say a copywriter role and your socials are full of grammatical mistakes it won't look great.

2. Things you post about on social media stay with you forever (think Jack Maynard, I'm a celeb situation) nothing is ever 100% private online, so make sure you think before posting a rant about that bad day at work or posting that inappropriate photo.

Saturday, 17 November 2018

We all want our blogs, websites and content to get the most traffic
possible, and while there are many ways to achieve this, one thing to
prioritise is key words and search engine optimisation. It's crucial that you
use the most effective keywords throughout your site that connect with the
right audience for your business. This is something I've slowly come to terms with while completing my summer internship in a digital marketing agency so I thought I'd share some hints and tips I've came across along the way!

It all begins with words typed into a search engine. Keyword
research is one of the most important and high return activities in
the search marketing field. Ranking for the right keywords can make or break
your website. By researching your market's keyword demand, you can not only
learn which terms and phrases to target with SEO, but also learn more about
your customers. It's not always about getting visitors to your site, but about getting the right kind of visitors.

Set and understand your overall goals.

Before you decide which keywords are right for your brand,
spend some time thinking about what your SEO goals are. Most companies use SEO
to increase website traffic, which in turn, increases revenue, but you’ll need
to be more specific than that.

Ask yourself these three things:

How
fast do you want to see results? SEO is a long-term strategy, so
it sometimes takes months before you start seeing results.
If you want results faster than that, you’ll need to choose
lower-competition and higher-volume keywords.

How
relevant does your audience need to be? Are you laser-focused on
one specific audience, or flexible with the types of people you have
coming to the site?

What
types of traffic are you seeking? Do you want people to buy your
products, or are you focusing for now on brand awareness?

Think like the audience

This may seem like an obvious step but is often one that is
overlooked, examining your website as a prospective customer can be
crucial in choosing the right keywords. Identify your target audience and put
yourself into the shoes of a customer when you create your initial list of
keywords. Ask yourself, “If I wanted to find one of these products or services,
what would I type into Google?” You can also consult others, such as friends,
family members, or even current customers to get their opinion on phrases they
would use when searching for your products and services.

Understand the long tail keyword

Long tail keywords are a combination of three or more words
or phrases, and can also be a question. While long tail keywords tend to boast lower search volumes, they
generally attract more relevant traffic, are typically less competitive, and
easier to rank well on. Choose long tail keywords that help to specify your
product or service.

Use Keyword Research Tools

Use Google AdWords Keyword Tool to research your potential
target keywords. With these tools you can gather data on keyword volume and
trends, keyword competition, similar keywords, and more.

Study the competition

Make
a list of your main competitors and go to their websites to see what keywords
they are targeting. Read their content and view their to help identify
the keywords they are targeting. Looking at your competitor's keywords will not
only help you see what you could be forgetting, but also help broaden your list
of ideas.

Analyse the Results

After choosing your keywords don't forget to monitor them
and analyse the results. There are often trending keywords or phrases, along
with new keywords your competitors may be using. Don't forget to utilise your
keywords wherever possible! Insert your keywords into blog posts, social media
posts and your website's content. The more you use keywords within your
content, the easier it will be for your target audience to find you.

Your first blend of keywords isn’t going to be perfect, but
it will give you a solid baseline you can use to improve your level of traffic
even further. Pay close attention to how your results develop over time, and
don’t be afraid to make changes when you need to!

Thursday, 15 November 2018

There's two things that absolutely make a Christmas in Newcastle - that being a festive bake and a photo outside of Fenwicks infamous window. Greggs have truly outdone themselves this year - flipping around the stores logo opposite the window to capitalise on the popularity of the display, everytime someone gets a photo outside it - there'll be a Greggs logo in the photo... genius.

Not to forget last christmas, when the bakery created an absolute storm online after replacing baby Jesus with a sausage roll in a nativity scene - whether it be good or bad PR, we all seem to be talking Greggs! With this in mind I thought I'd take a look back at my favourite 3 stunts Greggs have done over the last 2 years...

Nov 2017 - Baby Jesus Sausage Roll

As I mentioned earlier, this was one of those stunts that received a mixed reaction from the general public but it got everyone talking. This was for the launch of the limited edition Greggs advent calendar - which has a token for a different Greggs menu item behind each door (the dream if you ask me) - this received huge publicity at the beginning of it launching however because of the image used to promote, it had mixed reactions.

The controversy started with this image when the Chronicle quotes a vicar's criticism of the brand's depiction of the nativity scene with baby Jesus as a sausage roll. This sparked mass debate online as to whether it was an insensitive move by Greggs or just a bit of fun - which the bakery did apologise for. However you take this stunt, it certainly got people talking and the bakery saw a rise in sales across the month of this image being released and everyone talking Greggs!

Feb 2018 - #GreggsValentines

Greggs were one of many high street food stores to offer this sort of offer this year where couples were invited for the chance to enjoy a romantic candlelit dinner in selected stores across the UK for the very first time and it went down an absolute treat. The menu offered plenty of the 'Greggs favourites' with classic canapés, love heart garnished bakes, doughnuts - all accompanied of course by some Prosecco.

I don't know about you but I'd be over the moon with a Greggs date on Valentines day and I'm not at all surprised it sold out in 20 minutes...

June 2018 - Gregory and Gregory, Greggs undercover at a food festival

This was amazing. Everything you could want out of a viral video and more, from a perfectly presented timeline format showing the morning pick-up as Greggs, changing the van logo to 'Gregory and Gregory' as well as the set out of the food, to the arrival at the festival as Gregory and Gregory all the way to the amazingly Northern staff. The stand out point to this video comparing to the many other 'undercover brand' videos made in the past was the showreel of hilarious reactions from the foodies when they first tried the summer range and then when they find out it is in fact, a Greggs wrap they're eating - you can't fault this stunt, by far one of my favourites this year!

I don't know about you but I'm excited to see what the team at Greggs come up with next, they've definitely got something right!

Monday, 22 October 2018

How are you currently taking care of all your social media tasks? Whether it be for your own blog, a business or a clients - social media can be an overwhelming task, from creating and publishing content to analytics and reporting.

Thankfully, there are so many different management tools available to help with day to day social media management. These tools can help save time, streamline your workflow and even make sure your content reaches the right audiences at the right time. With so many options, I thought it would be great to showcase some of the top ones out there that I've used and my thoughts:

1. Hootsuite

Whether you are a user handling multiple accounts, or an agency handling hundreds, Hootsuite makes it easy, giving you the option to connect with over 35 popular social networks including Twitter, Facebook, Google+, YouTube, Instagram and LinkenIn. This platform offers you the tools to manage all your social profiles from a single dashboard and automatically find and schedule effective social content.

In terms of engagement, hootsuite uses multiple streams rather than one inbox to manage. You can set up streams for each social network to monitor its content and engagement and you can use the tabs on the platform to organise your streams into groups - effectively creating your own dashboard with the content you want to see.

2. Sprout Social

Sprout Social is an all-in-one platform that keeps marketers from swapping between different softwares. Sprout is one of the few social media management tools that provides customer relationship management (CRM) features, having a complete profile of your customers/audience which helps you serve them better and build stronger relationships with them.

It's easy-to-use interface and powerful features set it apart from the rest when it comes to scheduling tools and is one of my favourite to use for scheduling socials for clients. It's important to remember that scheduling social content isn't just about the publishing, Sprout's features on analytics and trend reports show you simply how to grow your following and which posts work well for your audience. From analysing hashtags to showing your best performing posts, Sprout is a great tool for brands/agencies looking to fine-tune their social media presence.

3. TweetDeck

If Twitter is key in your social media strategy then Tweetdeck is the one for you. It has offered a more convenient Twitter experience by letting you view multiple accounts in one interface since 2011. Tweetdeck makes engagement over Twitter simple - being described by Twitter as "the most powerful Twitter tool for real-time tracking, organising and engagement." It makes it much easier to engage with your audience by using a series of customisable columns rather than one single Twitter timeline. Adding columns that show all your mentions, messages, lists, trends, favourites, search results, or hashtag - creating your own personalised Twitter timeline.

TweetDeck allows you to tweet messages immediately or schedule them, if managing multiple Twitter accounts you also have the option to schedule tweets for different times for each of them. You can also make changed to a scheduled tweet before it's published which is a huge plus. TweetDeck is one of the most used social media management tools and one huge plus is that it's free and anyone can use it!

4. Buffer

Buffer is fairly similar to Hootsuite in terms of it being a management space for quite some time, and they are a very respectable platform that allows you to manage multiple social profiles with ease. Some of my favourite features with this tool it it's ability to easily schedule content while browsing the web with their chrome extensions - handy when doing research. It also suggests the perfect moments to schedule content based on your follower activity - ideal for wanting to reach a maximum audience. One of Buffers major plus points is just how simple and straightforward it is to use, while also giving you flexibility. The fact it provides analytics in real-time makes instantly judging the impact of your social content a breeze.

Which social media management tool are you using? Are there any others I should try out? Do you have a favourite? Let me know!

Tuesday, 16 October 2018

Each year, Lord Sugar's rigorous employment process puts a very
predictable range of candidates through a similarly foreseeable range of tasks
to decide who to ultimately hire at the end. They'll all come up with a
self-assured statement to introduce themselves to the world before the
programme ends as this is their shot, with one contestant this year even
claiming "I am the Beyonce of Business". We're now 2 episodes into
this years series of the Apprentice, with the third airing tonight, and we've
already seen the candidates create a kids comic book, find items in Malta and
tonight they'll be making donuts (the task of dreams!). Watching the 16
(now 14) candidates trying their best to make a good impression while fighting
for survival is very entertaining, but is also brilliant for picking up some
dos and dont's for your own career. Here are 5 tips I've come across so far:

1. Have confidence - but don't oversell

Confidence is a good
thing, of course. But there is such a thing as too much. Be assertive, not
intolerable. It's important to have confidence in yourself and have conviction
in what you say - embellishing facts mean you have a lot further to fall when
people discover the truth! Especially in PR - it is essential that any news
shared is accurate and factual - making up tales to boost a story may seem a
good idea in the moment to gather initial interest but could have massive
negative connotations in the long run.

2. Be nice!

It's not a dog eat
dog world, but no one ever said you were going to get anywhere by stepping on
other people's toes. Until the end, the Apprentice is essentially team based
and if you don't pull your weight, you won't be coming back to the board room.
This is also a reminder for everyday life, too. Be nice to those you work with
and associate with because you never know when you might need them as a
connection!

3. Admit Mistakes

Admit it when you’ve
made a mistake. Especially when you are being filmed and your mistake is broadcast
for everyone to see, there’s no running from it. Admit it, learn from it, move
on. It’s what makes us human

4. Speak Up

If
you think something is not going right or could be done better then say so –
don’t just watch your team fail in silence and then lay blame. Make sure you
put your point across but accept it if the team decides to go in a different
direction to the one you think is best. On The Apprentice we
see candidates fired for claiming (after the event) that they would have done
things differently. It’s important to contribute your opinion while there’s
still a chance to influence the outcome. However, if you can’t convince the
other team members that your idea is a good one then take it on the nose.
Sometimes you have to admit defeat and just continue to be a great team player
regardless.

5. Don't Lie

At all! This happens
every single year on the Apprentice where someone gets caught out with the little
white lies on their CV or throughout the tasks, there is a very very thin line
between creatively promoting yourself and completely lying about your
experience. Make the most of your achievements but don’t
lose perspective. Writing a food blog, not the same as having professional
catering experience. Honesty is always the best policy and especially in
the working world, it only takes a phone call or two to quickly reveal the
truth

Have you been watching the Apprentice? What
advice would you give the candidates to include their personal PR? Let me know!